The British Are Coming…Again
I’ve always thought that US TV shows have the ground covered when it comes to science fiction TV shows (although the UK has the longest running show Doctor Who to brag about). But occasionally the […]
I’ve Got This Idea…
When I was a kid I was awed by the adult section of the library. So many books! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. Where would I start? I was a voracious […]
A Good Old Fashoined Alien Invasion
The Battle for Eden Mark E. Burgess Wildside Press tpb $15.99 ebook $2.99 Kindle Nook Last week we looked at one half of a double novel. If case you aren’t familiar with the format, they […]
A Blog Horde Interview with C.E. Martin
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
Crossroads: Riding into Space – Westerns and Speculative Fiction
March is here, and that means it is time to move into a new Crossroads series. For some reason, March always brings to mind melting snow, spring’s inexorable creep across the plains, cold mountains withstanding […]
The Fuzzy Line Between Science Fiction and Fantasy
Pull the blinds and turn off the phone, it’s time to head to the Game Room and lock in on some hardcore meta-gaming action. In the Game Room we will explore the world of gaming […]
In Brackett’s Footsteps Under the Ember Star
Under the Ember Star Charles Allen Gramlich Wildside Press tpb $15.99 electronic $2.99 Kindle epub Unless Stephen Haffner has an unpublished manuscript tucked away somewhere, there will be no new stories from Leigh Brackett. Fortunately, […]
The Monster Makers
The spotlight last month fell on the special effects wizards who make SF monsters come to life. The crowning glory was the award of the Best Picture Oscar for Argo. This spy drama focuses on […]
Metadrama and Science Fiction in Affleck’s Argo
I had given some thought to doing an Oscars recap this week, tallying the various gains and losses of the science fiction and fantasy fields within that most prestigious of movie awards ceremonies. But given […]
Video: Cory Doctorow in Concord NH
Cory Doctorow made a stop at Gibson’s Bookstore (oldest book store in NH) yesterday, Sunday February 24th. Amazing Stories was there to tape the event, one stop of a 24 city tour promoting Cory’s latest […]
Halo Jones Interview with Ian Gibson
Before From Hell, before Watchmen, before The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, there was The Ballad of Halo Jones. Co-created by writer Alan Moore and artist Ian Gibson, Halo Jones was a space opera about a young woman who is swept up in […]
How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Manga
The Japanese manga Planetes reminds us that it’s not always about destroying the Death Star Sometimes, I tell people that it’s my brother Nick’s fault. Back in those dim, dark days before home video, Nick gave me […]
No. 6 – Theodore Sturgeon, The Next Question, Well-Meaning Scientists and The Evil They Can Cause.
2013 Feb 10 – Theodore Sturgeon, aka/Edward Hamilton Waldo, is best remembered for asking “What’s the next question?” In some portraits, you’ll see Sturgeon wearing a “Q,” with an arrow pointing forward, suspended from a […]
Christopher Nolan’s Inception as Shamanic Psychodrama
A few weeks ago, a friend and I were discussing which films should be considered science fiction and which shouldn’t. He claimed comic book/superhero movies should not be called SF. I claimed that Inception isn’t […]
Invasion of the Movie Snatchers
We live in a cinematic age of remakes, reboots and re-imaginings. Even new movies like The Hobbit feel like pictures that have gone before. This is hardly a new experience. Long before he became President […]
The Galapagos Frontier Thesis
The formative American experience was the conquest of the western frontier. Would science fiction and fantasy exist without the frontier model? What does Japan’s parallel conquest of Hokkaido tell us about the legacy of colonial expansion?
“I Like Science Fiction, It’s Got Like Giant Robots and Stuff, Right?” Science Fiction’s Self-Esteem Problem Part IV: To Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before
Over the last three weeks I have discussed the sources and causes of Science Fictions self-esteem problem. The genre’s inability to shed it’s pulp roots and ongoing pulpishness, the relative obscurity of SF to the […]
Raptor Rapture
2013 sees the twentieth anniversary of Jurassic Park. To celebrate, a 3D version will be released in the USA in April: https://www.jurassicpark.com/index_splash.html. Dinosaurs are hotter than ever before and that’s good news. Their snapping jaws […]
The First Poem Written in Space
The real scandal is that it took anyone this long to write a poem in space. The solution is easy.
“I Like Science Fiction, It’s Got Like Giant Robots and Stuff, Right?” Science Fiction’s Self-Esteem Problem Part III: Robots, Reboots and Remakes. How Hollywood Kills Serious Science Fiction
The only time the public pays attention to Science Fiction is when that great machine of mass marketing and “entertainment” called Hollywood inundates the collective consciousness with that most dreaded of phenomena: the Summer Blockbuster. But […]
What is the Optimal Human Population? Lessons From the Novels of Stephen Baxter
Are there too many people on the planet? Science fiction bears much of the responsibility for spreading this meme, which can be unpleasantly tinged with racism. But now and again a great science fiction author develops a more inspiring and pro-human approach to the population question.
Crossroads: A Genre Darkly
World-building, extrapolation, analogy, conceptual breakthrough, thought experiment – these are science fiction’s basic methods. Other genres might occasionally borrow them, but SF has sharpened them to a razor’s edge. So what happens when this set of tools works alongside the themes, styles, and plot structures of noir?
What You Will Find Here
Since January 2nd of 2013, members of the Amazing Stories blog team (you’ll find them all listed under Staff where you can learn more about them) have been writing away on their favorite subjects. Chances […]
Dress For the Occasion: The Scantily Clad Female
So, here’s a question: Say you’re a beautiful woman (I assume some of you reading this actually are women. Please believe me when I say that in my eyes all women are beautiful. If you’re […]
A Conversation about Cheating with My Time Traveling Future Self by Pornsak Pichetshote
There are things that titles tell you. A title like “A Conversation with My Time Traveling Future Self” says “Expect science fiction comedy played against a hilarious relationship situation.” That’s what I had in my […]
I Dreamed I Saw the Silver Spaceships
When people think about science fiction the first thing they usually visualize are spaceships (or green skinned women in shiny bikinis, but that may just be me). The spaceship has been a ubiquitous part of […]
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